amouringdiscovered that the new version of One×Time will be a collaboration featuring SU (Otsuki Kazuto) from RIP SLYME. Unlike the album's other new versions, the whole title of the collaboration will be renamed to:

They reiterate the song/album theme of "To fall in love and become beautiful," and confirm that the song title refers to multiple "I"s (one's personal pronoun of the past, present, future), but also that the lyrics are sprinkled with wordplay using the other meanings (Signal/Sign, Loves, Eyes).

The CD jacket's art director will be Morimoto Chie, an award-winning female graphic designer who has worked with Mr.Children and Kimaguren, among others. She also did the covers for the last four ap bank fest DVDs.

amouringdiscovered that those who order LOVE is BEST from avex's mu-mo Shop will receive a Limited Edition LOVE is BEST Pair-Blanket!

Hmm, I'm still kind of in shock that it's another best of album ... I hope this is more of what Ai wants than what Avex wants ... because this almost sounds like Koda Kumi marketing tactic. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to attack Koda Kumi. I just hate the way Avex markets Koda Kumi (even if it works) and I sure as hell don't want them to start doing that with Ai Otsuka ...

So hopefully I'm wrong XD

It'll be interesting to see what they do with this album though. I wonder if there will be different versions of previous songs (like re-arranged or acoustic versions) or maybe a B-side best O.o

Based on the info there's only one thing I'm certain of. Everything else I'm not certain of so I don't want to speculate.

Thanks for sharing this news lvul8er with us. This album really comes as a surprise, I certainly didn't expect another best of album so soon! Like sakuraangel, I hope Ai is doing this on her own terms rather then a push from avex.

From what I gather from the first post, this album will consists of 14 old songs and 1 new song. All of these songs will have a central theme of "to be beautifully in love", meaning they will all be love songs.

This is good news. But I was hoping Avex would have had the heart to slow down on releases. It's nice that this is another opportunity for Ai's fans to update their collections, but what ever happened to the global recession that was setting everyone back financially? Still, I agree with what everyone else said about this being Ai's decision and not the company's.

My boyfriend called me on the train to tell me about this, and immediately i thought "oh crap, Avex are gonna make a best-of out of LOVE PiECE and LOVE LETTER to milk cash" and then he called me 10 minutes later to tell me about the tour and asked if we wanted to go, which i said HELL yeah. So we are going to try organise to go.

I think this idea of a best is good, at least there is a new song!!!! And I like the whole theme with love and Autumn. I'm just glad we get something to buy.

i wonder if the reason for this Best album is the LOVE is BEST Tour 2009. tours have always promoted albums and if avex wanted to schedule a tour at the end of the year and there was no new album release pending...

^ It seems that's what Avex is aiming for. She didn't sell that well in recent years compared to the past, so they're making up for her low sales by putting her on tour constantly. Ai really deserves a break, I think.

It seems that's what Avex is aiming for. She didn't sell that well in recent years compared to the past, so they're making up for her low sales by putting her on tour constantly. Ai really deserves a break, I think.

I think that is exactly what it is, though another major tour so soon after Love is born will be very tough, however I do believe it is Ai's decision in the end.

^ heh, yeah I was thinking the same thing. I feel that, since Ai's cute and pure love songs was what rocketed her to fame in the first place, they're thinking "Hey, since Ai's not as popular as she was then, why don't we do a repeat performance of what she did back then?". avex is evil.

EDIT: OMFG YAY A VIDEO FOR ONE X TIME!! YAYYYY!!! avex may be evil, but they sure are smart!